Carly Romalino’s Oct. 11 story, “Complaint on closed session names GOP freeholders; ethics violation alleged,” about a bogus ethics complaint against the Republican Gloucester County freeholders, while well-written and balanced, clearly was the result of a set-up to garner headlines that undoubtedly will be used in the Democrats’ political mail.

What’s even more troubling is that the set-up was not done just by the Gloucester County Democrats, but county Counsel Matt Lyons appears to have been complicit in it. If Lyons knew or suspected that there might be a conflict of interest, he needs to advise the board member in question accordingly. Given the clear political sensitivity of the court judgment against the county at issue, he should have preemptively asked the freeholders if there was any potential conflict, then rendered the appropriate advice.

Republican Freeholder Vince Nestore’s “yes” vote, (to pay a court-ordered bill to attorney Mark Cimino), as I understand it, was based upon Nestore’s belief that the freeholder board had to comply with the judge’s order, and that trumped any potential conflict.

Republican Freeholder Larry Wallace indicated in the story that he was operating on an “overabundance of caution” with an abstention on the same vote. Isn’t it refreshing to have two members of the same political party not rehearse their votes prior to a meeting, and have a different take on the same matter?

How ironic is it that we are even having this discussion, since the core matter is that the previous all-Democrat board was found guilty of flagrantly abusing the Open Public Records Act, to such an extent that a judge ordered that the plaintiff’s attorney fees (Cimino’s) be paid. Democrat Freeholder Heather Simmons voted “no,” in defiance of the judge’s order. What if a board majority had taken the same obviously political stance? I suppose they’d all be held in contempt of court.

Adding to the purely political nature of this charade is that John Alice (the attorney who filed the ethics complaint) has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats in the past 10 years, and holds numerous no-bid positions with the county and some of its Democrat controlled municipalities. Let’s not forget Alice was the attorney who represented Simmons at a 2010 recount (after which Nestore was seated as a freeholder). Alice appears to be doing what he is told to do in order to keep his lucrative positions. Call it “Pay to Stay.”

The really problematic issue is that Alice is wrong on the facts. Mark Cimino did not represent Wallace and Nestore during the recount. I personally tapped Gloucester County Republican Counsel Mark Shoemaker to represent the Republicans candidates in these proceedings. Shoemaker had several local attorneys, Cimino among them, help in observing the recount process. The recount proceedings were open to the public and any resident could attend and observe.